Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday refused to denounce a campaign surrogate under fire for mentioning Monica Lewinsky while attacking Sanders’ rival Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.
“We are literally under attack for not just supporting the other candidate. Now I’m with Monica Lewinsky with this: bullying is bad. She’s actually dedicated her life now to talking about that,” actress Rosario Dawson told a massive crowd in Wilmington, Del. on Saturday, while introducing Sanders.
During an appearance Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union,” anchor Jake Tapper asked the Vermont senator whether he viewed Dawson’s comments as “appropriate.”
“Rosario is a great actress and she’s done a great job for us,” Sanders responded, declining to directly answer Tapper’s question. “She’s been a passionate fighter to see that we increase the voter turnout [and] that we fight for racial, economic [and] environmental justice.”
Sanders continued, “What I will be doing in this campaign is an issue-oriented way, not by personal attacks but by contrasting our view to Secretary Clinton.”
“But yes or no, should your surrogates be talking about Monica Lewinsky?” Tapper pressed the senator.
“I have no idea in what context Rosario was talking about her,” Sanders responded. “I would hope that all of our people focus on the real issues facing working people and the massive level of inequality we have.”
A spokesman for the Clinton campaign refused to address Dawson’s comments on Saturday, according to CNN.
“You could ask the Sanders campaign why they encourage this vitriol in the vicinity of their candidate by staying silent,” Nick Merrill said in a statement.
Sanders has previously defended Dawson when she attacked Clinton over the former secretary of state’s use of a private email account.
